Sporting Kansas City hits the road this weekend for the team’s penultimate away match of the 2025 MLS regular season when the team visits the LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday night. Kickoff is set for 9:30 p.m. CT and will be available to stream on Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass, while the game will also be broadcast locally on the radio via Sports Radio 810 WHB.
1. ELIMINATED FROM POSTSEASON CONTENTION
Sporting Kansas City saw the club’s hopes of reaching the MLS Cup Playoffs officially dashed following last weekend’s 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Children’s Mercy Park.
Sporting will now play out their final three matches of the season with an eye toward 2026, starting with Saturday’s match against bottom club the LA Galaxy - the only other team in the West also eliminated from postseason contention and remarkably the West’s basement team after winning MLS Cup last season.
Set to miss the postseason for the third time in the last four years, this marks the first time since 2009 and 2010 that Sporting has missed the MLS Cup Playoffs in consecutive seasons.
Despite an ultimately disappointing conclusion to the 2025 campaign, Sporting has shown plenty of grit and fight throughout the season, signified by the team gaining 14 points from losing positions (three wins and five draws) during the regular season - tied for fifth most in MLS - and getting nine goals from substitutes, tied for third most in MLS.
2. VISITING CELLAR-DWELLING GALAXY
Sporting Kansas City is back on the road for the second-to-last time in 2025 this coming weekend when the team visits reigning MLS Cup champions - and also cellar-dwellers - the LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday night.
Sporting hosted the Galaxy at Children’s Mercy Park back on May 4, 2025, emerging as 1-0 winners in a remarkable match. After Maya Yoshida had turned Daniel Salloi’s cross into his own net to give Sporting the lead early on, the hosts sat back and held on to that scoreline to become the first team in MLS history to win a match without taking a single shot.
Sporting last visited the Galaxy on June 15, 2024, falling to a 4-2 defeat against a rampant LA side. Sporting fell behind following goals from current KC striker Dejan Joveljic and Gabriel Pec before Stephen Afrifa reduced the deficit with his first MLS goal. LA extended their lead through Joseph Painstil only for Robert Castellanos to respond and make it a one-goal game heading into the closing stages where Miguel Berry buried his team’s fourth to seal all three points.
Sporting narrowly trails the all-time regular-season series with the Galaxy 27-28-18, including a 8-18-9 mark on the road. However, Sporting has lost just two of their last eight away matches dating back to 2015, going 4-2-3 in that time.
3. JOVELJIC RETURNING TO OLD STOMPING GROUNDS
Sporting Kansas City forward Dejan Joveljic is set to return to his old stomping grounds this weekend when he leads the team into their road match against the LA Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday night.
Joveljic spent three-and-a-half years with the Galaxy, enduring an up-and-down tenure in Los Angeles before delivering a crowning moment in 2024 - scoring a team-high 21 goals in MLS play and tallying the game-winning goal against the New York Red Bulls in MLS Cup as the Galaxy lifted their sixth title last December.
The Serbian frontman was dealt to Sporting in the first-ever cash-for-player trade in MLS history and he has gone from strength to strength. Currently sitting on 17 goals in MLS play, Joveljic has already topped his previous regular-season career high and is in the midst of the third best goalscoring season in Kansas City history.
Joveljic’s 38 MLS goals since the start of 2024 are the third most in MLS, only trailing stars Lionel Messi (45) and Denis Bouanga (43).
4. THOMMY MAKES FIRST START IN OVER TWO MONTHS
Sporting Kansas City midfielder Erik Thommy returned to the starting lineup for the first time since July 4 this past weekend when he played the full 90 minutes in the club’s 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday night.
A hip injury sidelined Thommy from July 12 through Aug. 24, forcing the German playmaker to miss six matches in total. Thommy was eased back into action this month, making substitute appearances against Austin on Sept. 7 and Real Salt Lake on Sept. 13 before returning to the XI on Saturday.
Thommy has enjoyed another productive season in Sporting Blue, tallying four goals and four assists while primarily splitting time between the right and left wing. The 31-year-old’s eight goal contributions this season rank fourth most on the team behind Dejan Joveljic (19), Manu Garcia (11) and Daniel Salloi (11).
Coming to the end of his fourth season in Kansas City, Thommy has tallied 20 goals and 24 assists across 118 appearances in all competitions for the club.
5. JAMES, 17, CONTINUES TO DEVELOP
Sporting Kansas City Academy product Ian James continued his development this season with another 90-minute outing in the 2-0 setback against the Vancouver Whitecaps at Children’s Mercy Park last Saturday night.
James, a 17-year-old center back, has now made seven appearances in all competitions this season since signing with the first team last offseason. The Homegrown player, whose three MLS starts have led to a 1-1-1 record, held his own on Saturday night, completing 84 percent of his team-high 68 passes and consistently thwarting Vancouver’s pacy attackers in the final third.
James has recorded the fastest top speed (22.1 miles per hour) of any Sporting player this season and was recently part of the U.S. U-17 Men’s National Team for a training camp in the Netherlands earlier this month.
